


On The Mend

by SaucyWench



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Pre-Slash, Sibling Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-24 05:29:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9705365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaucyWench/pseuds/SaucyWench
Summary: A fill for the GatheringFiKi Winter Fandom Raffle Exchange!Prompt 86- Hiding an injury / pretending not to be coming down with a cold (and getting taken care of anyway)





	

Dis had only been gone three days when Fili started to cough.  He chalked it up to spending more time in the forge than usual.  Thorin and Dis had tried to finish all of their projects before they left, yet small emergencies kept piling up.  Someone’s axe broke, and then someone else needed nails, and since he was working anyway couldn’t he sharpen these knives?  Kili offered to skip his classes and help out while they were gone, but Fili put his foot down about that.  This was the first time their mother had left them alone for so long, and if Kili started falling behind in lessons it would be the last.  No, Fili would stay late at the forge and Kili would go home and go over his papers.  They might not be adults, but they weren’t dwarflings anymore, and could handle the responsibility while their mother was gone.   

The next morning a coughing fit woke him up.  He drank a cup of hot tea laced with honey, and it stopped so he didn’t give it a second thought.  He made sure Kili was awake, and then headed out to the forge for an early start.  He’d be able to get those knives sharpened and work on the blades that were commissioned.  He had to open the doors wide while he worked, though.  It seemed stuffy in the forge, the soot aggravating his cough and making it hard to breathe even with the cross ventilation. 

When he got home, Fili headed straight to the bath.  Once he was clean he sat at the table with Kili, but didn’t have much of an appetite.  He managed to eat one of the sausages Kili had made, and picked at a slice of toast, but turned down Kili’s offer of going to the tavern for an ale.  He clapped Kili on the shoulder and told him, “You go ahead.  I need to catch up on my reading.”  Instead, he was asleep fifteen minutes after Kili left.

The next morning, he woke feeling as if he didn’t sleep at all.  Kili was already up and cooking breakfast, and shot Fili a concerned look when he shuffled into the kitchen.  “Morning, brother.  You look awful.  I thought I would be the one looking worse for wear after last night.”

As Kili launched into a cheerful monologue about some song Bofur sang at the tavern, Fili tuned him out.  He didn’t bother trying to eat, instead sticking to hot tea with honey again.  It did nothing to help his sore throat, though.  At Kili’s insistence he tried a bite of porridge, but it set off a coughing fit bad enough that he had to lean down and catch his breath.  It felt like his lungs were full of cotton, making it hard to breathe, and his throat was on fire.  When he sat back up, Kili was quietly giving him a concerned look. 

“It’s nothing,” Fili ignored how hoarse he sounded and waved a hand.  “I inhaled too much soot yesterday when I was banking down the forge.”  He sat straighter and tried not to grimace in pain as he took another sip of his tea. 

Kili wasn’t fooled.  “Maybe I should go get Oin to have a look at you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Kili.”  Fili cringed at how much he sounded like Uncle Thorin with those words.  He softened his tone at add, “If Amad thinks I’m going to get sick if she goes to visit the next village over, she’ll never leave us again, and you know Oin will tell her.  It’s just a cough.  I’m fine.”

“If you say so.”

Fili ignored Kili’s dubious look and headed to the forge.  By midday, he was wracked with chills.  Even working next to the hot forge couldn’t stop his shivering.  He skipped lunch, thinking that he could this one order finished and knock off early for the day.  He was leaning over the crate holding the blocks of pig iron when he was overtaken with another coughing fit. 

It felt as if his throat was lined with shards of glass, and each inhale was painful.  That was nothing compared to how badly it hurt when he coughed, and the pain radiated down into his chest and around his ribs.  He couldn’t stop coughing and he couldn’t catch his breath.  Trying to stand straight made it hurt worse.  Maybe he’d been closed in the forge too much today, and fresh air might help.  His eyes were watering badly enough that tears tracked down his face and made it difficult to see, so he felt his way to the door.  Pushing the heavy door open sapped the last of his strength and he fell to his knees.  He’d rest here, just for a second, until he caught his breath and could get back to work.  The last thing he remembered was coughing and gagging before the world went black. 

***

He was coughing before he was fully conscious.  The first things he became aware of, aside from the painful cough, was a hand smoothing across his back in soothing circles and a voice crooning to him.  When he got the cough under control, he was able to ascertain that he was in his own bed, laying on his side with a cloth under his face, and Kili was sitting beside him. 

“What – “was all he managed before he started coughing again. 

“One second.”  Kili hurried to pull a kettle from where it was hanging over the fire.  He poured boiling water over something in a bowl, replaced the kettle, and used a cloth to carry the hot bowl.  He set it on the table beside Fili’s bed and fanned the steam at Fili. 

The moist air carried the scents of eucalyptus and ginger.  It still hurt to breathe, but as Fili was able to inhale more of the steam, the band around his chest loosened.  He tried taking a deeper breath but started to cough again.  This time the towel under his face came in handy as he brought up some of the congestion from his lungs.  He made a face and wiped his mouth, but that sapped his strength and left him feeling weak. 

“Here, Fee, can you swallow this for me?”  Kili held up a cup full of steaming tea. 

Fili nodded and tried to sit up, but had a hard time.  Kili shifted on the bed, sliding behind so Fili could lean against him.  Fili lifted the cup to his mouth with Kili’s help.  It was willow bark tea, loaded with honey, and he could taste sage and licorice in it.  It didn’t exactly taste good, but it was everything they needed to treat a cough and a fever.  The warmth eased the pain in his throat and the tea was gentle on his stomach.  He could only drink half of it before he was pushing it away. 

Kili set the cup on the table before wrapping his arms around Fili’s chest in a hug.  The actions were at odds with the words when Kili muttered, “You are an obstinate, pig-headed, arrogant _idiot_!”

“Hey!”  Fili struggled to sit up so he could look at Kili. 

Kili wasn’t letting go.  He squeezed tighter and buried his face into the hair at the back of Fili’s neck.  “You knew you were getting sick, but you just had to keep working anyway.  Mahal forbid you take a day off and rest.  Not you!  You’ll just keep working until you faint in the forge.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Fili protested to no avail. 

“I went looking for you when you didn’t come home,” Kili continued as if he hadn’t heard.  “You were on the ground and wheezing.  You scared me half to death, Fee.” 

Fili quit trying to escape Kili’s hold.  He patted one of Kili’s hands since it was all he could reach.  “I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to scare you.”  Talking made him start coughing again. 

Kili patted Fili’s back, and once the spasm passed he handed over the cooling tea.  Fili drank and Kili sat the cup down once more before standing up and starting to pace.  Without looking at Fili, he said, “I know I’m your younger brother, but I’m not a child anymore, Fili.  I know you’re better in the forge than I am, but I can still do some of the work.”

Watching him go back and forth, Fili had to admit he was right.  True, Kili was still growing, but he was a healthy teenage dwarf, not the little dwarfling Fili remembered.  He tried to interrupt Kili’s tirade.  “Kee?”

“Any idiot can make nails, and while I do that you can handle some of the other stuff,” Kili pointed out.  “I can sharpen a blade just as well as you, too.”

“Kili?”  When he finally got Kili to look at him, Fili went on.  “You’re right.  You’re not a child anymore.  Thank you for coming to find me.”

Kili got a pained look.  “I know there’s going to be a lot of things you have to do that I won’t be able to help you with.  All I ask is that you trust me, and let me do what I can.”  He waited for Fili to nod, then smiled.  “Enough talking.  Right now, you need to get better.  I have soup on the stove.  Let me get you some.”

Fili watched him walk out, and listened to him puttering around in the kitchen.  He shook his head and took a sip of his now-cold tea.  When did his baby brother grow up?  That idea would take some getting used to. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, kudos, and comments! 
> 
> As always, I am over at Tumblr. Feel free to leave a prompt, tell me about your headcanons, or just say hi! 
> 
> [ [My personal blog] ](http://myseri.tumblr.com/)  
> [[My writing blog]](http://saucywenchwritingblog.tumblr.com/)  
> 


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